The Australian men's hockey team received automatic qualification to the 2012 London Olympics after Fiji today withdrew from the Oceania Cup-Olympic Qualifier which will be held in Hobart from October 6-9.

The Kookaburras, currently the number 1 team in the world, will now face New Zealand in a best of three series to decide who is the Oceania Cup champion.

With the top two teams in the Oceania federation receiving automatic Olympic qualification, both the Kookaburras and New Zealand can now set their sights on London. This is the same situation with the Hockeyroos and the New Zealand women’s team, with the Fijian women’s team also withdrawing from the Oceania Cup last month.

Both Fiji teams withdrew due to financial reasons.

Despite receiving automatic qualification to the Olympics, Kookaburras coach Ric Charlesworth said there was still plenty to play for, with his team aiming to sharpen their skills leading into London 2012 after an inconsistent showing during their last international tournament in July.

“The fact that we will play New Zealand once more is good for the teams overall development. Any opportunity to play a quality team in the countdown to the Olympics must be used properly. We saw in our last tournament that we still have much to improve on and I will be looking for significant improvement from the players at the Oceania Cup,” said Charlesworth.

UPDATED FIXTURE:

Thursday 6th October 2011
5.30pm                  Men                                        New Zealand v Australia
7.30pm                  Women                                  Australia v New Zealand

Saturday 8th October 2011
1.00pm                  Women                                  New Zealand v Australia
3.00pm                  Men                                        Australia v New Zealand

Sunday 9th October 2011
1.00pm                  Women                                  Australia v New Zealand
3.30pm                  Men                                        New Zealand v Australia

Hockey Australia